Patriots sweep twinbill from Daytona State

Friday

Apr 10, 2009 at 12:39 AM

By Richard BurtonCorrespondent

OCALA — The Central Florida Community College softball team continued its roll on Thursday afternoon against Mid-Florida Conference rival Daytona State College.Once again, the Patriots got dominant pitching and defense, but added in some timely hitting on their way to shutout victories with final scores of 2-0 and 3-0.With the sweep, CFCC (32-19, 11-9) vaulted past the Falcons (20-26, 10-12) for fourth place in the conference.The Patriots, who won three of the four meetings with Daytona this season, have now won seven in a row overall heading into today’s non-conference home tilt with Palm Beach at 2:30 p.m.Kelly Riddick (17-6) and Katie Mueller (6-7) both notched shutouts on the mound for CFCC.The Patriot pitching staff of Riddick, Mueller and Nicole Denney, who were recognized by the FCCAA as Pitchers of the Week for their work on the hill for the week of March 30, picked up where they had left off. On Thursday, Riddick allowed just one hit, walked three and struck out 12 in the opener.The sophomore from Starke Bradford High has allowed just one run on eight hits in her last 30 innings of work.During that span, Riddick has struck out 47 batters.In the second game, Mueller scattered four hits and walked just one in the complete game victory.She got out of a two-on, two-out jam in the sixth to hold off the Falcons.“Good pitching and good defense continue to be the keys for us,” said CFCC coach Kerri Ryskamp, whose team clinched its first state tournament bid since 2006 with a sweep of Lake-Sumter on Tuesday. “Plus, our bats have come alive over the past two games.“(Daytona) has a great team and this was a good win for us. We did an absolutely fantastic job.”Lexi Mikedis was the star at the plate for CFCC in both games.In the opener, the former North Marion product had RBI singles in the third and sixth innings to back Riddick’s effort in a pitching duel with Daytona’s Katie Murphy (10-15).Jessica McClellan added two hits, including a double, and scored one run for the Patriots in the opener. Jessica Chewning singled and scored for CFCC in the first game.Mikedis then added a two-run homer in the first inning of the second game, which scored Chewning, who had singled.Chewning and Katelyn Guinsler had two hits each in the nightcap for CFCC. Jennifer Hunter added an RBI single for the Patriots, while Staci Cauthen and Ashley Clark each notched singles. Katie Hayes scored one run for the Patriots in the second game.